- All-or-nothing thinking. Seeing things in black-or-white. For example, if a situation falls short of perfection, you consider it a total failure.
- Overgeneralizing. Letting a single negative event imply that bad things will always happen, or that good things will never happen.
- Mental Filtering. Focusing in on a single negative aspect of a situation, and blocking out everything else that may be good about it.
- Discounting the positive. Ignoring all positive events, and telling yourself that they don’t count, it was just a fluke or just luck. This predictably takes the joy out of life, and leaves you feeling inadequate.
- Jumping to conclusions. Putting a negative spin on an event, even though there are not facts to support your conclusion.
- Mind reading. Assuming that your can tell when someone is thinking bad thoughts about you.
- Fortune-telling. Feeling that you can predict that something will turn out badly.
- Magnification. Seeing problems and setbacks in exaggerated and large terms, or minimizing and putting down good things.
- Emotional reasoning. Assuming that your negative emotional state really reflects the ways things are.
- Should statements. Thinking that things “should” be the way you want them to be, rather than, “it would be nice” if things turned out the way you wanted.
- Labeling. Attaching a negative label to yourself rather than describing what happened to you. “I’m a jerk” vs. “I made a small mistake”.
- Personalization and self-blame. Holding yourself personally responsible for something that isn’t completely under your control.
August 5, 2026